Working Things Out
by TessieIII
Summary: Andy talks to his older brother about life, love, and their Father. OneShot.


**Author's Note**: Hi! Okay, so, it looked to me like TBC Category needed a new fic, so, here it goes. Enjoy!-Tessie:)

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"Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three..." Andrew Clark lay on the abdominal bench in his basement, counting repetitions of the sit-ups he was doing.

"Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five..."

He was so used to exercising like this that his muscles weren't even reacting yet. He could easily do a hundred more before he felt a thing. That was why he pushed himself every night to do at least five more than he had the night before. Whether he was doing bicep curls, or push-ups, or jumping rope. It was a matter of building up his endurance, or his intensity, as his father referred to it.

"Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine..."

It was the same routine every day. He came home from school, had some type of a high-carb snack, and came straight to the basement, which had been converted to an at-home gym when Andy was young. His Mother hated it, and always said how she would have preferred making the basement into something practical, like a family room. Andrew kind of liked it though, he could sit down there and clear his head for as long as he wanted, with no one to bother him.

"Hey Android, still down here tryin' to break the world record for most sweat produced in a half-hour!?"

Or so he thought.

"Maybe. You still tryin' to break the record for the oldest guy still making up bogus nick names for his brother?"

Andy turned his head toward the stairwell in time to see his older brother Jake descending the last few steps. Always honest and direct, Jacob was, at least physically, a taller and lankier version of his younger brother who had a hint of their Mother's soft features. Usually he was pretty good about leaving Andy be when he worked out, but today that was obviously not the case.

Jacob came to stand over Andy, so that he appeared upside-down as Andy continued his sit-ups.

"Great job Jake, you made me lose count!" The younger Clark said, shooting mental daggers at his brother.

"You'll live." Jake responded as he pulled a chair over near the abdominal bench to sit down. "Don't you even want to know why I'm visiting?"

Andrew rolled his eyes. "The same reason you were visiting the past ten times: Because the bridesmaids gowns didn't match, the florist had gone out of business, the Reverend you wanted to preform the ceremony dropped dead..I could go on for another year."

Jake had to stifle a slight grin at this. It was true, he was getting married in six months, and so far he and Denise had had sort of an unlucky streak, and he'd been desperately in need of his Mother's organizational expertise to undo whatever had happened.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't tell me you're not happy to see me." He said, offering Andy a towel.

Andy completed his last sit-up, turned himself around and slid off the end of the bench before accepting it. "Thrilled."

Jacob sat down again. "I get it Andy, you're useless to talk to right now."

Barely even paying attention to him by this point, Andy was busy selecting the appropriately sized weights from his collection. "And by that you mean what?"

"You know exactly what I mean." Jacob sighed. "You're obsessed with getting your daily work-out regimine finished before Dad comes home because you don't wanna hear him if you don't."

"What's so wrong with that?"

"Nothing. That is, until it starts taking over your entire life."

Andy put down the 20 pound weight he'd been doing bicep curls with. "What makes you think it's taking over my life?"

"Cause when I was your age I was the same way." Jake looked at the walls of the basement, at the trophies Andy'd won for wrestling, and at the ones he himself had won for track. "Dad sure hasn't changed much since I was seventeen."

"Really?" Andy was surprised. Jacob was nine years his senior and was supposed to have been an only child. The age gap made a lot of his memories of his brother's high school years a bit hazy.

By the time Andrew was born, their Father had already begun developing his eldest son's interest in sports. Taking him to football games, watching baseball on tv, etc. When Jake was a Freshman at Shermer High School, his Father decided it'd be a good idea if he tried out for the track team. It was an uphill battle from there.

"Sure. Lemme guess, you run five miles every morning, do sit-ups, bicep curls, and push-ups in the afternoon, and then after dinner you jump rope. Right?"

This was a little on the creepy side. It'd been over eight years since his brother lived with him, so how could he know his entire scheduale to a 'T'?

Getting up and walking towards his older brother, Andy stuttered a bit. "Wait-Hold on, how'd you..."

Jacob cut him off. "That was exactly my routine in High School."

Suddenly it became clear to Andy. It wasn't just him that his Father chewed out and forced to be a winner. He'd done the exact same thing to Jacob.

_I won't tolerate any losers in this family! Win, Win, Win..._

"Andy, listen. Don't let him get to you, okay? I mean, don't get me wrong, he's our old man and everything and he means well, but don't be afraid to blow him off once in a while. Trust me, if there was one thing I wish I did more in high school it's blowing Dad off." Jacob sat back down in his chair. "In five years, no one's gonna give a flying fig tree if you won state in anything, from wrestling to bungee jumping."

The younger Clark fingered the gold chain around his neck, something he did when he was thinking. "I know, I just hate letting him down, you know?"

"I think the only way you could let Dad down would be to quit sports completely and join the physics club or something." Jake smiled. "Now, on to more important matters, who're you dating?"

He knew this was coming."You don't know her."

Jake put a playful arm around his brother's neck. "Sure I don't. Now fess up, who is it? I'll bet it's Jenny Wells, she always did have a thing for you."

"It's not Jenny." Andy replied, shrugging his arm off.

"Victoria Baker?"

"No."

"Krystal Witmann?"

"No."

"Theresa-Marie Edwards?"

"No! And how do you know the names of so many of the girls in my class?"

Grinning, Jake replied. "Who said I don't look through your yearbook when you're not home? I'm only gonna ask one more time before you're in a headlock, Andrew."

The headlock just wasn't worth it, he was too tired. "Allison Reynolds."

"I like that, 'Ally and Andy'." Jacob said, laughing.

Andy gritted his teeth. "She _hates_ being called Ally."

"Ok, then. I'll stick to Allison." Pausing for a moment to think, Jacob asked, "She related to Patrick Reynolds? He was in my graduating class."

Andy shook his head. "Nah, she's an only child, and she doesn't have any other close family in Shermer besides her parents."

"Oh. Well her folks are members of the country club, right? Do Mom and Dad know them?"

He'd been secretly hoping the whole time that he wouldn't have to admit to this, mostly because he was so ashamed of it himself.

"Mom and Dad haven't met her, they don't know anything about her. As far as they know, Allison doesn't exist."

Jacob looked at his younger brother, confused. "What are you talking about? Oh god, Andy she's not married, is she!?"

What a Dinkhead. "No, but let's just say she's probably not planning to run for prom queen."

"Oh." For Andy's sake, Jake hoped this wouldn't get around. Not that their parents were snobs or anything, but their Father dislike anything and anyone that could interfere with training, i.e. girlfriends.

"Do you love her?"

For the first time in Andy's life he felt as if Jacob was talking to him as his equal, as an adult, and not just as his much-younger brother who had no had no idea how the world worked.

Andy nodded. "Yeah, I do."

Jake smiled. "Have you told her?"

A second nod. "Yeah."

Jacob put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. This time, Andy didn't shrug it off. "Then that's all that matters, don't worry about Dad. Besides, chances are if he hasn't noticed that your all-state patch is no longer in it's place of honor on your Letterman Jacket, I doubt he's gonna notice a girlfriend."

Just then the door leading upstairs could be heard opening, and Mrs. Clark's footsteps sounded on the first few steps. "Boys! Dinner's ready, c'mon upstairs!"

The two young men did as they were told, both completely forgetting that Andy had barely worked out at all.

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End file.
